The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for data message delivery to recipients migrated across technology networks.
While the invention is particularly directed to the art of telecommunications, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the invention may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, SMS (Short Message Service) provides a mechanism for transmitting short text messages to and from wireless devices. The service makes use of an SMSC (Short Message Service Center), which acts as a store-and-forward system for short messages. The wireless network provides the mechanisms required to find the destination station(s) and transports short messages between the SMSCs and wireless stations. In contrast to other existing text-message transmission services such as alphanumeric paging, the service elements are designed to provide guaranteed delivery of text messages to the destination. Additionally, SMS supports several input mechanisms that allow interconnection with different message sources and destinations.
A distinguishing characteristic of the service is that an active mobile handset is able to receive or submit a short message at any time, independent of whether a voice or data call is in progress (in some implementations, this may depend on the MSC or SMSC capabilities). The SMSC also guarantees delivery of the short message by the network. Temporary failures due to unavailable receiving stations are identified, and the short message is stored in the SMSC until the destination device becomes available. SMS is characterized by out-of-band packet delivery and low-bandwidth message transfer, which results in a highly efficient means for transmitting short bursts of data. A variety of services has been introduced, including e-mail, fax, and paging integration, interactive banking, information services such as stock quotes, and integration with Internet-based applications. Wireless data applications include downloading of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards for activation, debit, profile-editing purposes, wireless points of sale (POSs), and other field-service applications such as automatic meter reading, remote sensing, and location-based services.
Many mobile subscribers get ported from one network to another network (inter technology roaming), such from CDMA to GSM (or UMTS) and vice versa, without change mobile phone number. Number portability (NP) has been implemented in various switches for voice communication. The STP (Signal Transfer Point) will usually provision its database for routing of ported number. However, this has not yet worked for data messaging such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), since the original NP solution is MSC/HLR-based. Insofar as SMS data messages (as opposed to voice messages) involve message retries for a pre-defined number of times, an SMSC based solution is more suitable than an MSC/HLR based solution because the SMSC has a built-in fool-proof retry mechanism.
The present invention contemplates a new and improved SMS delivery method that resolves the above-referenced difficulties and others.